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[FM12] Taking Liechtenstein to the Top

Hi all! I’ve been an avid FM player for a number of years now, and over the course of the years I have accomplished many things. I have taken teams from the bottom of league structures to the top, won World Cups, even managed to compete in Asia with an Indian team. But I recently came to these forums in search of a new challenge, and I have found it. That’s right; I am going to attempt to bring Liechtenstein to the top of the world. And I’m going to do so by promoting youth through a lowly club..

Am I crazy? Yes.
Do I believe I’m going to succeed? No.
Is that going to stop me? Hell no!

I am using this marvellous database update of Switzerland, which takes the league structure down to the 6th tier. And it is there I will start my journey, with Liechtenstein club FC Ruggell.

They are not the lowest Liechtenstein club in the league system, that honour belonging to FC Triesen in the 7th tier. Unfortunately, the odds of them coming up after holidaying a season would be extremely low, so this is where we start.

FC Ruggell is an Amateur club playing in the 6th tier of the Switzerland football system. They have never won the Liechtenstein cup, despite making the final on six occasions, and therefore have never played in European competition.

This database update doesn’t have the Liechtenstein cup, but after holidaying a few seasons, and seeing FC Vaduz being the Liechtenstein club in the Euro Cup each season, I’m lead to believe that it is determined by either the highest ranking Liechtenstein club, the one who makes it furthest in the Switzerland Cup, or that the game is always going to make FC Vaduz qualify for the Euro Cup.
So prepare yourselves for probably the worst ever attempt of FM, and let's all hope the Liechtenstein, the only nation ever to lose to San Marino, can at least make some progress in the world.

Rules

- No players can be signed; the club must rely on youth players.
- Greyed out players can be signed if I’m short of players, this is the only instances in which a payer can be signed.
- Staff can be signed whenever.

The start of everything. I can tell this is going to be a tough season just from looking through the squad. However, there are some bright spots here, particularly these three.

Dominic Spalt - Rated as the best in the squad, easy to see why. Decent pace and crossing. Hoping for many assists this season.Marco Wolfinger - Other guy whose pretty decent for this level, good pace, finishing and composure. Hopefully will lead the line.Andreas Haber - Good looking right back, pace, tackling and work rate all decent.

I signed a majority of the greyed out players to contracts, but they are all complete rubbish, not one of them registering more then 1 star potential.

Hope you can win the Europa League one day! (impossible to win Champions League...)

That's the plan Although at this stage I reckon just getting to the top division will be a great achievement

FC Ruggell 2011/12 Pre-Season Round Up

As you can see, the pre-season went much, much better than I expected Four wins and a draw gives me hope that I can perform well this season. Our 7-1 thrashing of FC Srbija ZH was definitely the highlight.

Well, I guess it isn't really mid season, but there's only 22 games in the league, and 11 have been played. I still got another cup to play in, but besides that, the rest of the games are spread out to about 2 a month after November.

A much better start to Life in Liechtenstein then I imagined, leading the table by 4 points. It's not really completely fair though, seeing most of the other clubs have nothing but greyed out players. Don't know what's happening there, maybe nobody wants to sign for a 6th tier Swiss club, or maybe their managers are all doing youth challenges as well . Either way, those couple of loses could have easily been draws, and maybe wins if we had been a bit more clinical.

The Swiss Cup was disappointing. We won the Qualifying Round against a 5th tier side, before bowing out to a 6th tier side (Who in turn got knocked out by a non-league side). Still, achieved more than what the board had hoped, so I'm not going to dwell on it.

The club has injected money twice into the club now after restructuring the debt, firstly a 55k injections, then a 40k. Without taking that into account, the club has been making about 2k each month, so we're not in a bad situation. Not enough to increase the junior coaching budget, and definitely not enough to think about facilities, but enough to put my mind at ease.

Anyway, I've been thinking about how I'm going to report these updates. I think I'm going to do an End of Pre-Season report, a Mid-Season report and an End of Season report. As well as that, at the end of each year, I'll do a summary of Liechtenstein's international performances, and when a youth intake comes through, I'll report on that as well

@oche balboa - The Liechtenstein Cup? Yeah, I thought it would be in here as well, but no matter. This save is really about producing talent Liechtenstein can be proud of

@Johnny Drama - Thanks

@ThePlaya - I agree, he is amazing. But don't get to caught up on our form just yet, we haven't been spectacular since the update.

@B.W.G - Thanks for the support

@deltablue - I would call this the Improbable challenge

Another cash injection, and this time the board agree to increase the Junior Coaching budget. We now have rented minimal youth facilities (Better then the No Facilities we had at the start) and Basic Junior Coaching

About the average year for Liechtenstein. A win at Lithuania was soured when they got thumped on the return. A couple of close loses here and there, but the drop in the rankings was always going to happen. The manager is under almost no pressure, managing such a small nation. I'll probably have to wait until he retires to try for the position.

We won the league, though we made it more difficult then what it should have been. We secured it in the second last round. We Probably should have been crowned champions earlier, but a tendency to draw games at the last second held us back. Still, an excellent first season for the club. As you can see from the facilities, we still have a long way to go to start bringing in more talented youth, but our finances are looking decent enough to start improving the Junior Coaching budget some more. The transfer screen is there to show my lack of activity

As shown in the mid season update, we won our qualifying match, but didn't get past the 1st Round. Still, not much was on the cards there. I would have liked to get a game against one of the top sides for a bit of cash though.

How many times can you say that you haven't lost a game in a cup, but still not make it far into the cup. It was a frustrating cup, We won our first two games, both knockout games, then got paired in a group with 5th teir teams. Two of the draws came from goals in the last ten minutes, so it was rather annoying.

Key Players

Marco Wolfinger -Had a phenomenal season. Would have scored more, but received an injury mid January which ruled him out for 3 months.

Oliver Spalt - My other striker, almost as many goals as Wolfinger. Suffered a bit when Marco wasn't playing, but still managed a couple of goals. Named Fan's Player of the Year.

Dominic Spalt - The left winger I showed at the beginning, contributed to the team with 8 goals and 5 assists.

Andreas Wenzel - A greyed out player I signed to a contract, he performed well above his ability.

Thomas Heeb - A solid season from the vice-captain and centre back. Held the line well.

Andreas Haber - A decent season from Haber. Performed well and managed to chip in a few assists.

Youth Prospects

Horst Kind (YP1) - Played the last three games of the season, probably my best left back going by ability at the moment. Sure to start more games next season.

Actually, I am even more confused about why we went semi-pro. We aren't in a fantastic financial position, and the only other club in our league that is semi-pro is Bad Ragaz. In fact, looking through the other divisions, it doesn't look like a requirement until the 3rd tier. I think I'll just go with it and not ask questions

This season sees us face off against another Liechtenstein club, Triesenberg. Will be a great test.

Youth Prospects

Horst Kind (YP1) - Had a solid preseason at left back, will be starting a fair bit this season.

Patrick Riedel (YP2) - After a great pre-season, I decided to make this youth my second prospect. I sorta overlooked him during the intake, but even though his attributes aren't great, he managed to play in 3 assists in 4 games. Enough of a proscept for me

Season Goals

1. Survive for the season, push for a mid table spot. I believe I have the quality (in comparison to the league) to achieve this.

We cannot finish out games! 6 draws from 11 games... if we had been more clinical or could hold out for the last 10 minutes, we could be out of sight. But I guess that this level of football - too many mistakes. As you can see, any of the top 5 sides could easily win the league at this point. Ability wise, there is not much difference between the 6th and 5th tiers, so I managed to fit right in.

Our Swiss Cup campaign was rather good. We won our qualifying match, then went on through to Round 4 (or the Last 64). There we lost to 3rd tier side Cham 4-0. We really had no chance that game. I can only imagine what would have happened if we drew Basel or Young Boys. That also ended our 29 match unbeaten streak, starting in November last year.

Ahh, the horror and agony of the draw... Still its a good season for your first at this new level. And yes, I think you may be crazy for the daunting task you've taken on, but I'm going to be interested in seeing you attempt it!

Another terrible year for the national teams, losing every game except for a 0-0 friendly with Kuwait. It is clear the manager is under no pressure what so ever to succeed, despite his nation slipping down the rankings at an alarming pace. It is sad to see this, as the group they have been drawn in is arguably one of the easiest I've seen.

A decent looking intake this year. Obviously at this level, every is rated as 5 stars for the future, but I got my first gold star current ability players this year. The pick of the lot, and my third Youth Prospect, is..

Wow. Simply Wow. I did not expect this, coming into the new season. Unbeaten in the league. It all started well, with 3 straight victories; 2-0 over Mortlingen, 2-1 over Rüthi and 2-0 over Wessen. With that, we were top of the league. Then a run of 3 draws took us down to 2nd, and we remained there after eleven games, adding 2 more wins and 3 more draws to our total.

In the second half of the season, however, we found our groove and started dominating teams. We went on a run of 7 straight victories, creating a 4 point gap over Schaan. However, we then drew with Rorschach 2-2, with Schaan closing the gap to 2 points. The next game we both won, so they continued to keep pace with us. In the second last game, we had our showdown. We prevailed 2-1 over Schaan in a tight affair, and was subsequently crowned champions. We finished the season off in style with a 4-0 thrashing of Sevelen.

A fantastic campaign saw us make it through to the 4th Round before losing to 1ére Ligue suisse (3rd tier) side Cham 4-0. We started off brightly, winning our Qualifying Round game over Schmitten 1-0. We followed this up with a 3-1 win over Münchenbuchsee, a 3-0 win over Prangins Sports, and a 4-0 thrashing in the 3rd Round of fellow league side Rorschach. However, against Cham, we never stood a chance, and bowed out for the year.

We made it one round further in this competition. Winning our qualifiyng game 2-1 over Sarnen, we were paired in a group of Savosa-Massagno, Perlen-Buchrain and Eschenbach. Two wins and a draw saw us progress through the group, but we were knocked out by Coldrerio, getting thumped 3-0.

The Liechtenstein Games

So I mentioned that we would be playing matches against Liechtenstein clubs for the first time this season, against Triesenberg. Further research shows I completely overlooked Schaan as a Liechtenstein club as well. Here are the results from this year.

Learning that Schaan was a Liechtenstein club made the promotion race that more exciting, as we battled tremendously against our fellow club. It was even more fitting that we won the league in our match against them.

The Frustrating Games

These were two games I wanted to pull my hair out during. The 3-3 draw with Sevelen, after scoring our 3rd goal and leading 3-1, saw them score two goals in a couple of minutes to equalise. The 0-0 draw with a 9 man Eschenbach was equally frustrating, as we were denied time and time again despite our numbers advantage.

Another decent preseason for the club, winning 3 and losing 1. One of the wins came against a side in our league this season, which is encouraging, while the loss came from a side which was relegated from our league last season, which isn't as encouraging.

The Season Ticket sales soared this season, racking up a total of 56, 24 more than last season. This didn't improve our finances though, as we lose money quite consistently. This is because I have brought in better staff on part time contracts this season (now we have 3 or 4 stars in each training category except for goalkeeping ), so I expect to lose some money this season. Still, I'm hoping for improved attendances outlaying some of the costs.

Cheers fellas I think we will survive but we've had a bit of a shaky start, 2 draws we didn't deserve and a loss. But then we won 2 games and are back on track. Those games were against the bottom sides though, but as long as we beat them, they can't finish above us, right? (I hope not :/)

Compared to the step up between 6th and 5th, this is going to be a pretty tough season. Which will be good, time for the boys to build some character

Also Lennart Jokubowski (YP3) got his very first man of the match He scored 2 goals in our 5-0 thrashing of Reinach in the Swiss Cup. He's also rated as our best player already. Will hopefully get the mid season update up today

I think I overestimated how great the step up in quality would be. It has been a more challenging season, but only against the semi-pro teams that had been relegated from the 3rd tier. We started off shakily, but managed to turn it around with four consecutive wins. One win in the the four games after that saw us drop off the pace a bit, but another two wins sees us sitting nicely in 2nd place, one point off top spot. Barring a second half season capitulation, I think we have a chance to secure a third consecutive promotion.

Another good run in the Swiss Cup. We didn't have to go through the qualifiers this season, meaning that we jumped in at the 1st round, where we destroyed Reinach 5-0. Two more wins saw us face up against Super League (1st tier!) side St. Gallen at home. We took the league, and looked headed for a upset victory, when they scored 2 goals. A fantastic performance agaisnt a much stronger opponent.

Youth Players

Horst Kind (YP1) - Another solid season so far at left back, chipping in a few assists.

Patrick Riedel (YP2) - I'm finding it hard to start him because he plays the same role as Jokubowski. When Lennart was injured he got a few games and played solidly.

Lennart Jokubowski (YP3) - Simply amazing first season so far, scoring some fantastic goals. Has been in the Liechtenstein U21 team but still hasn't been capped.

Small signs of improvement by Liechtenstein, defeating both Latvia and Iceland, while drawing with Moldova. These results allowed them to shoot up the rankings to 137th, although a lot of work still needs to be put into the nation for long term improvement. Props to the manager for finally getting some victories, in what would be a stressful and painful job to undertake.

Only lost 6 of their 11 games, with 2 wins along the way. Decent signs for the youngest national team. Still not getting anywhere in terms of qualification, but improvement takes a long time at international level.

I should've used this swiss update, it sounds awesome. You're starting 4 divisions further down the ranks than I did. And you'd probably be pleased to learn my team tore Vaduz apart 8-1 5-1 relegating them in the process.

Bar the needless references to my thread, I think you have started very well, seriously back-to-back promotions is awesome but you've got to be completely nuts to attempt this with a youth only policy, I'm pretty certain all you guys who try this kind of challenge on rubbish nations are all masochists.

@noikeee - Thanks! I'm hoping Vaduz become a force before I get to the Super League so I can take the pleasure in destroying them myself. I reckon the ones who try it on the large nation are the true masochists, at least there's a chance of getting to the top of the nation here I mean, only youth against Man Utd or Real Madrid? There's a special kind of crazy

@TheGreatTraveler - We won our final game of the season 4-0 if that counts, but no we could only win three games in the second half of the season. We still finsihed in a respectable position however.

A great first season in the 4th tier, achieving 5th place. It could have been a lot more though, as we shot out to challenging for promotion in the first half of the season, trailing by 1 point after 13 games. However, it may have been a combination of bad form, complacency or something else, as we then only won 3 games and picked up a total of 12 points from our remaining 13 games. Our final game of the season, a 4-0 thrashing of Baar, showed what we could have done if we didn't have the slump, but ultimately 5th place is a fantastic first season achievement.

This season also saw us release a lot of dead wood. All were on amateur contracts, so weren't costing me anything, but I had better back up in my youths, that actually would improve to be somewhat decent.

Another 4th Round appearance saw us face off against Super League side St. Gallen. In a gallant performance, we took the lead before ultimately losing 2-1. Another great effort in the cup, but hopefully we can get one round further next season.

I decided to take on teams above us in ability to help out the finances, before arranging easier games towards the end. While we did make money, I'm incredibly disappointed in that final loss against the Austrian side filled by greyed out players. Still, can't judge anything by the preseason. The real stuff starts now.

We also received another Junior Coaching upgrade, which I'm pleased about. Adequate coaching has brought in some pretty decent players, so now that we're on average we should be able to produce some Liechtenstein superstars.

Slight change in updating, "influenced" by some of the other threads that have much better layouts haha

FC Ruggell July - September 2014 Report

July 2014

Started the season in the worst way possible, losing 3-1 to Niederweningen. The team had no desire whatsoever, and absolutely embarrassed themselves in front our their fans. After this game, decided it was time for a change. New formation, dropped quite a few underperforming players. The result was a much better performance, although still a loss, to Dübendorf.

August 2014

We needed a win to start the month, and we got it in a good performance over Winkeln SG. We followed this up with two consecutive 1-0 losses, the first one in the Swiss Cup to AC Malcantone. We dominated the match, but just couldn't score an equaliser. It was a similar story against Amriswil, where we couldn't snatch the point despite having many good opportunities. Our final game of the month was another frustrating one, taking a 3-1 lead over Kreuzlingen before slumping to a draw. 4 points picked up during the month, although it seemed more like 5 points dropped.

September 2014

A much better month, starting with a 2-0 win away to Aegeri. Was hoping for a point here but we managed to win all three in a dominant performance. We followed this up with a 3-1 over Lachen/Altendorf. It was another fantastic effort against what should have been a stronger team, going by form. Then we played AC Malcantone, who are quickly becoming our bogey side. Another completely dominant performance, another 1-0 loss.

And there we are after 8 games, sitting in mid table. After July being a horror month, we are slowly improving. The Swiss Cup exit was very disappointing, but now we have more time to focus on the league. Hoping to be in around 5th place by December.

deltablue - Much more of one, though if we didn't have that slow start, who knows where we'd be?

FC Ruggell October - December 2014 Report

October 2014

After losing the final match of September, I needed a win to get away from the bottom 3. Effretikon provided that, although the 2-1 loss did not do them justice, as they at least deserved a draw. We then hosted an over-performing Rüthi, where despite our dominance, we couldn't break them down.

November 2014

November singled 4 tough matches, the first against Baar who were sitting just above us prior to the game. In a great performance, we ran out 2-0 winners. Then a run of 3 frustrating draws came our way, first 1-1 to Giubiasco, who despite their league position probably should have won. That was followed by another dominating performance against Ibach. The draw there singled the halfway point of the season. The return game to Niederweningen was much more even then the first game, and it showed in the result with a 2-2 draw.

December 2014

December was a month where I was hoping to pick up 4 points, and my players didn't disappoint me. We ran riot over Dübendorf 3-0, before again dominating but not breaking down a team, this time Amriswil.

We got to our 5th place, where I was hoping, but at this stage I think we can only get to 3rd over all. That lead at the top, while not insurmountable, might just prove too much of a challenge.

A poor effort from the pride of the nation this season, not even getting a draw. As a result, they sunk to a new end of year low in the rankings (at least during this save), and still they are content with this manager. No real shock I suppose.

Another year, another intake which only adds players of similar quality to my team. However Luc Zech did stand out, as I need a decent ball winning midfielder, so he is now my YP5. We'll see how good he really is in a few years time.

Alot of games played this month, although we won none in the league. We began the year poorly with a 1-0 loss to relegation side Winkeln, before turning that around in the Interregional Amateur Cup (IAC) with a 1-0 win over Widnau to progress to the Championship Group Stage. However, we were then thrashed by Kreuzlingen 4-1, and I suddenly was worried with how my team was going to play the season out. Shades of last season were creeping into my mind. However, two wins to fellow league sides Dübendorf and Amriswil in the IAC pushed them away, before losing 2-1 to Aegeri and 2-0 to 3rd tier side Baulmes finished off the month poorly.

February 2015

We continued our bad form into February, losing 3-2 to Lachen/Altendorf after leading 2-1. Their winner came in injury, so it rubbed salt into the wound. Another injury time goal against AC Malcantone consigned to a 1-1 draw at home. It was a frustrating month.

March 2015

Fortunately, we regained some form in March. We defeated league leaders Rüthi 2-1 away, before coming home to thrash Effretikon 5-2. Striker Nils Schmidt scored 2 goals on debut, with the team finally coming together.

And now we sit in 8th, with all but no chance of being relegated. With 3 games to play, I'm hoping to improve to at least 7th, but 6th if I'm lucky. My final games are against Baar, Giubiasco and Ibach.

Only one game in April. I was hoping for a point here, and was delighted when we went out to an early 2-0 lead. However, youth and inexperience cost us, as it has on many occasions this season, and we let in 3 goals to lose.

May 2015

At this point, I was hoping to still rise to 7th place in the league to gain some respectability. A 3-3 draw to last place Giubiasco was very annoying, however this time we had to fight back from 2-0 down. It showed that there is character in the team, and they won't o down without a fight. The final game was against Ibach, a team 3 points above us in 7th. A win would see us overtake them on superior goal difference, and we didn't disappoint our home fans, runnning out 2-0 victors.

And there we have it, a win, a draw and a loss enough to pull us into 7th place. End of Season update to come soon.

In the meantime, take a look at the Liechtenstein U19 squad. 9 players are currently contracted to us (Marc König is currently out on loan, therefore doesn't appear with our squad). Quite an acheivement. Bit surprised there's only 3 FC Vaduz players, although they more then make up for that in the U21's, with more then half the squad made up of their players. Our only representation in the U21's is Lennart Jokubowski (YP3).

A pretty up and down season. We couldn't really put teams away. I think this may be because of the inexperience, and hopefully this season will help a lot of the youngsters out. At our best, we could easily dominate most teams, it really is just a matter of consistency, and not dropping a lead.

@deltablue - Hopefully, the players have a bit more experience, I mean most of my team is under 20 so the inconsistency will be there.

@B.W.G - That was actually their second straight promotion! If you look back to our 2nd season, when we were in the 5th tier, they finished mid table. The next year they got promoted and last season promoted again. Pretty unbelievable really.

FC Ruggell Pre Season 2015/16

I again arranged a heap of friendlies against the top tier sides. First off was a mini league against Zürich, Young Biys and Basel which I fully expected to be the Whipping Boys in haha. We didn't actually do too bad against them to be honest. Then we played friendlies against Grasshoppers, Sion and Neuchátel Xamax, and got thrashed by all of them.

We ended off the preseason by arranging a "Liechtenstein Cup", against the Liechtenstein clubs either below us or in our league (in Schaan's case). As I expected, we dominated those teams. So we are better then Triesen, Triesenberg and Schaan. Now we have to overtake the other 3.

Season Tickets remained at 57. Finanaces went up a lot. I didn't actually realise that the league would draw TV revenue, but I suppose the allure of Zürich, Young Boys and Basel gathering preseason was too much for the camera crews to stay out of Liechtenstein I need all the money I can get though, I only survived last season through cash injections from my chairman. Might actually need to arrange two leagues against top sides to break even in the future.

First off, I persuaded the board to give me another Junior Coaching upgrade. We're now on a "Good" level. Am I right in saying that there's only two more levels, Excellent and Exceptional?

July 2015

We began the season away from home against former 3rd tier side Winterthur U21. It was a little unfair as their team only consisted of one actual player, so it was no surprise that we dominated. The surprise of the month was our first home game of the season against Baar. We ran riot, thrashing them 4-1 to skyrocket us to the top of the table. A great start to the season.

August 2015

As fantastic as July was, there is always a month that shows off our youthful inconsistency. This started at Amriswil, losing 2-1 in a tight game I think we should have gotten more from. This was followed up with us bowing out of the Swiss Cup 1st Round a second season in a row. The next game was extremely frustrating though.

In a tight game against Lachen/Altendorf, we shot out to a 2-1 lead by half time. Unfortunately, Horst Kind (YP1) was forced from the field with a long term hip injury (6 months). Markus Wagener also had injury problems, and although he could play on, I wasn't going to risk it at 39% fitness. So two substitutes used, after half time, Marco Wilfinger goes down injured, leaving us with no more subs. Finally, in an attacking play, Oliver Spalt goes down with a broken foot (6 months), leaving us with 10 men.

This was bad enough, but while he was down on the ground, Lachen/Altendorf broke away with their numerical advantage and scored. So much for fair play. Then the manager had the audacity to tell the press he didn't like the way my team played. I've never actually been more annoyed at a virtual manager before haha.

The final game of the month was a 2-1 loss to Niederweningen, and we ended August without a win.

September 2015

After that month of eventfulness, we started September with a solid 1-0 win over Aegeri, breaking our winless run. This was followed by a frustrating 1-1 draw with fellow Liechtenstein club Schaan. We probably didn't deserve anything from this game, but I was happy with the point. We ended September defeating Kreuzlingen 2-0 on home soil, dominating the affair and getting some payback for their 4-1 thrashing of us in January.

There you have, a solid start to the season with two months of no losses and a month of no wins. Lachlen/Altendorf sit comfortably on top, with a 5 point advantage, though it is early days and they've given up table topping leads the past two seasons.

deltablue - Yep, I'm hoping to maintain some pressure on top spot but it's been a bit hard.

FC Ruggell October - December 2014 Review

October 2015

Coming off the back of a solid start to the season, our next opponent was relegation candidate Bazenheld. As seems to be the pattern, we dominated but couldn't find a way through their defence. Full credit to them though as they earned a valuable point. Then we played AC Malcantone, and I had high hopes for winning. Those hopes were dashed when Patrick Riedel (YP2) threw himself into a challenge and got sent off. From them, it was one way traffic, as they ran out 3-0 victors. A poor performance at home. Luckily though, we went back to winning with a solid 1-0 win away to Team Ticino U21, finishing the month with 4 points.

November 2015

This month was almost a mirror image of October, starting off with a 0-0 draw where we couldn't break down the opposition. This was followed by a 1-0 loss to Ibach. However, compared to the Malcantone match where we were dominated, it was us that controlled proceedings. However, a goal on the break to Ibach pushed us 10 points behind them and Lachen/Altendorf at the top, and the promotion push looked out of reach. We ended the month with a 2-1 win to complete the second month in a row that went 0-0 draw, loss, 1 goal win. Another 4 points, and we moved to the final month of 2015.

December 2015

We knew we would have to win both games to keep in the promotion race, and things started brilliantly with a 2-0 win over Baar. In an even game, it was (surprisingly) our clinical finishing that won it for us. We then played Amriswil, who were 4 points clear of us in 3rd. Another clinical display saw us run out 3-0 winners, and within touching distance of 3rd. This game also saw the return of Oliver Spalt from a broken foot, and he didn't disappoint with a goal. Top spot is still a way off, but a lot closer than it looked a month ago.

So we end the year 6 points off promotion. We're not out of the race yet, but i'm not sure whether we have the capacity to win the required games this season. At least we're well and truly clear of the relegation fight. January will be the telling month. We have not won a league game in January for the past 2 seasons, and if that continues this season, we have no chance of promotion.

They managed a win to Luxembourg, but suffered many heavy defeats, most notably 10-0 to Russia, 7-0 to Ukraine and 7-1 to Chile. This saw them slip down to 202nd in the world. Malta and Azerbaijan are still ranked worse then them out of the European teams, but this is a sorry place to be for the nation.

I think this is the first time I've seen a Liechtenstein team, no matter which age, not bottom in their group. Solid effort by the U21's, with a win over Latvia and a draw with Slovakia lifting them off the bottom.

Ah January, always our collapse month. 3 seasons in a row we haven't won in the league, although at least picking up a couple of points this season shows we may be on track to reverse this trend. The first match was a 1-1 draw to Niederweningen. No real complaints here, we were both evenly matched. Then the IAC game to Breitenrain came, and we got thrashed by them 4-0. Basically of the opinion that we wouldn't get a point if we got promoted to 3rd tier at the moment. Rüthi is coming last with 11 points this season. The 3rd match was awful, getting thrashed 4-1 by Lachen/Altendorf and basically ruining any chance we had of promotion. The final game, a 0-0 draw with lowly Aegeri was also hard to swallow, after we dominated but couldn't win.

February 2016

February began with a match to fellow Liechtenstein club Schaan, where we ran out 2-0 winners in a tight affair. We followed this up with a 1-1 draw to Kreuzlingen, with our coming via a hilariously own goal, where their defender must have thought he was a striker when he volleyed the ball into the net.

March 2016

Not much to say this month, a great win, followed by a disappointing loss to AC Malcantone putting us out of the promotion race.

Well, it looks like Lachen/Altendorf is not going to drop their lead this year and actually win promotion. Hoping to move up to third in an extremely congested mid table.

Win means go up to third.
Defeat means go down to 9th.
Tough season, looks like it's very evenly matched.

I know, it was a crazy season. We were lucky to end up where we did.

FC Ruggell April - May 2016 Review

April 2016

I wanted to reach 3rd place, and that pursuit started very well against Dübendorf. We won the game 1-0 in a relatively even affair. This pushed us to 5th place due to other results, but will still had a great chance of finishing 3rd.

May 2016

We followed that up with a great 2-0 win over Team Ticino U21, where Patrick Riedel scored one of the goals of the season, taking the shot first time and drilling it top corner from the edge of the area. This put us to 3rd place by 1 point, and we remained their even after a disappointing loss to Ibach.

And there's the final table. Lachen/Altendorf finally got promoted after three seasons of challenging. Only 2 points seperated 3rd though 7th, showing how even the competition is in the 4th tier. Overall, a great season, one I hope to improve on.

The finances are terrible. The only way I can make money is via pre-season leagues. So I guess that will be my income source for a while.

Youth Prospects

Horst Kind (YP1) - Had a great season, having the highest average rating. Won Fan's player of the Year.Patrick Riedel (YP2) - Also had a pretty decent season. Nothing spectacular, but was solid enough.Lennart Jokubowski (YP3) - Had a pretty poor season, couldn't cement a first team place and didn't play well when he did start.Thomas Nowakowski (YP4) - Had a pretty bad season as well. I guess I can blame his long injury lay off last season, but he scored no goals. Has decent attributes, so may go on a scoring streak if he gets one.Luc Zech (YP5) - Didn't feature much due to the performances of other players. Performed alright, but no real superstar as of yet.Arvid Keller (YP6) - Started one game and played well, also got his first U21 cap at the age of 15. One to watch.

That was too close for comfort,hopefully giving your a youth a few seasons to develop will help with the promotion push.

Originally Posted by deltablue

Looks like a tough battle to go up in future.

Originally Posted by cerud

That's crazy how crowded the table was, but speaks to the level of competition you have. A 3rd place finish is a hard fought battle. Congrats

Thanks fellas. It is a really even league, all it takes is one team to string together a couple of great results, and then they're pretty much uncatchable. If we had beaten both Lachlen/Altendorf and Ibach in the second half of the season we would have gone up, but things just didn't want to go our way.

FC Ruggell Pre-Season/July - September Review

Didn't really have internet access, so I played through to September. The preseason fixtures were pretty self explanatory. We played leagues against top tier sides for our only potential revenue raising for the season, managing to get to 600k in the black. Then I checked to see if we could upgrade the coaching budget, unfortunately for months now it has just been the cut back option. So I checked to see if we could build youth facilities, due to not actually having any. Thankfully the board accepted, but it's still in the planning phase and we may not have enough money when the time comes around. If we do, we have to wait until October next year for them.

July 2016

We began the season against our old bogey team AC Malcantone, and again couldn't come away with the win. A tight 0-0 affair at home still better then the 3-0 thrashing they gave us last season. We then went to newly promoted Sementina and came away with a well earned 2-1 win.

August 2016

We started August at home to relegated Rüthi, where a tight 1-1 match ensured us of an unbeaten start to the season, furhter increasing that run in the Swiss Cup, defeating Puplinge 2-1 to progress past the 1st Round for the first time in 2 years. We followed that up with a 1-1 draw away to Baar, before getting a historic 1-0 win over 3rd tier side Malley in the Swiss Cup 2nd Round. That spurred us on to finish to month with a 1-0 away win to Kreuzlingen.

September 2016

September started spectacularly with a 4-1 thrashing of Dübendorf. Nils Schmidt scored a hattrick, and all in all, has been phenomenal this season. We then played Bazenheld at home and got another frustrating 1-1 draw. The Swiss CUp 3rd Round went well and we progressed beating Ascona 2-1. This sets us up with 6th tier side Fulenbach in the 4th Round. We finished the month with another disappointing draw, 1-1 to St Gallen U21.

Thhere we have it, fantastic unbeaten start, disappointing 6th place and 5 draws. This seasons shaping up to be an odd one already. We need to start winning the tight games in order to be promotion candidates though. Thankfully, no team has really taken the league by the scruff of the neck yet.

October was a fantastic month, with us winning all four games. It started with a 3-1 win over last season promotion candidates Ibach, their league position a true testament to the leagues equality. We followed this up with a trip to newly promoted Chur, where we ran out 2-1 winners, before travelling to meet Fulenbach in the Swiss Cup 4th Round. In a surprisingly tight match, extra time was required for us to win, with Nils Schmidt grabbing his second hat trick this season. The final match against fellow Liechtenstein club Schaan ended in a 1-0 victory to us.

November 2016

Novmeber started with a must win game against Amriswil. Only a goal difference separated us, and we managed to run out 1-0 victors at home. A trip to last place Schmerikon followed, where we picked up our biggest win of the season, 5-0 in a fantastic performance. Another away trip followed, this time to 1st tier Sion in the Swiss Cup 5th Round. We played brilliantly, and began to dominate when they had a player sent off. Unfortunately, they managed to sneak home a winner late in injury time to deny us a chance of taking the game to extra time, and maybe penalties. We ended the month with the first game of the second half of the season, running out 3-1 winners over AC Malcantone.

December 2016

December saw us back to our old selves, sort of. It began with a draw to Sementina, a game which we should have easily won. Luckily, we bounced back with a crucial 2-0 win over Rüthi, before dropping a 3-0 halftime lead against Baar to scrape a draw. That was a truly pathetic game.

Kreuzlingen match us at every turn, and despite us not losing a game in the league yet, we still aren't top. January will be the crucial month. We haven't won a league game in January for 3 seasons, and our first game in January is, surprise surprise, against Kreuzlingen. If they win, it is essentially season over as they have played too good this season. Draws have really cost us so far. This coming month is one of the most important I have faced in football manager.

Another year for Liechtenstein, though at least they managed two wins over fellow European minnows. A change of management (I applied, but didn't get the job) did little to stop the defeats. They gained 5 place in the rankings.

A better year, not finishing last shows some signs of improvement. YP5 Luc Zech showed his authority at this level, scoring the winner against Estonia. Another management position I was unsuccessful in applying for.

Lienchenstein is improving!
January will be your give or take month, and I feel you need a good month to stay in the promotion race.

Slowly but surely. I won't say much before the January - March update, but we did lose to Kreuzlingen. However, there's also only 2 points between 1st and 3rd now, and the team that is currently on top isn't one of us two.

FC Ruggell Youth Intake

A pretty rubbish year if I say so myself. Only two players stood out, and neither of them star quality.

Philipp Seitz - Has got the right technical and, to an extent, mental attributes for a centre back, but needs to desperately improve his physical. Hopefully his determination will make him improve. If he does, I will probably reconsider him for Youth Prospect status.

The first game of the new year was played against 3rd tier side Schaffhausen, where we lost 2-0. I had expected this, and was just hoping that we would sustain no injuries for the crucial game against Kreuzlingen. Fortunately, we didn't, but we still managed to lose, pushing Kreuzlingen out to a 6 point lead at the top. At this point, I figured this January would be the same as our previous 3. But then we found some form, dispatching Dübendorf 2-1, and coming from 2-1 down to defeat Bazenheld 3-2.

February 2017

Only 1 game this month, and what a game it was. We destroyed St Gallen U21 5-0, with Philipp Wagner getting a 9.8 rating with 1 goal and 3 assists.

March 2017

March turned out to be a vital month. First game was a very disappointing home loss to Chur. However, Amriswil and Kreuzlingen played each other the same day, with Amriswil coming out on top. This put Amriswil top with 48 points, Kreuzlingen 2nd with 47, and us third with 46. The other game this month ended in a 3-1 victory over Ibach, with Amriswil also winning, while Kreuzlingen losing their match.

It's tight at the top, and we're in for a grandstand finish here. In true Football Manager style, our first match in April is away to Amriswil. They could wrap up the title there, while if we win we take the drivers seat with matches at home to Schaan and Schmerikon. But it would be foolish to count out Kreuzlingen now, after their wonderful season.

This months only game was extremely important. A loss would see us all but out of the promotion race, while a win would see us go top. Neither of those options happened, and Amriswil would have to settle with a 0-0 draw with us.

May 2017

The last two games of the season were home games, and would have to hope Amriswil would slip up on their run home. We started off with a solid 2-0 win over Schaan, but Amriswil and Kreuzlingen both won, leaving the top three separated by 2 points again. The final game of the season saw us win 3-0, and while Chur was at one point leading, Amrisiwl came from behind to claim top spot.

An unbelievable season. The draws agaisnt St. Gallen U21, Baar and Sementina really cost us. Those should have been easy wins, but they were the games that cost us. Either way, a fantastic season, and I'm hoping to improve by 1 place next season.

Thomas Nowakowski (YP4) - Had a terrific season up front. I'd say he is now over that broken foot that kept him out for 4 months. Maybe the fact that him and Schmidt came through the youth system the same year contributed to their success up front.

Luc Zech (YP5) - Didn't find many first team opportunities due to the 1st team playing so well.

Arvid Keller (YP6) - Played extremely well when given an opportunity until a torn hamstring struck him down at the end of the season. Already has won 5 U21 caps for Liechtenstein and is only 16 years old, definitely one to watch.

We also had one last present for the season - the board allowed us to increase the Junior Coaching budget, meaning we are now on an excellent level However, the plans for the youth facilities were scrapped due to lack of funds. If I make the money in the preseason, I'll try and get it back on track.

I imagine this would've been a frustrating season, coming so close to promotion after being stuck at that level for 4 seasons, but this slowing down of progress may actually be good in the long-term for your youths as they gain experience to attack the following tier - very good news on the junior coaching front too to go along with that. Surely next year you're looking into going up tho?

So close to getting promoted,hopefully you'll be able to do it next season.

Thanks

Originally Posted by deltablue

I love the matter-of-fact 'nope' for Europe.

I was wondering if someone would point out the bluntness of that haha. I'd imagine there will be at least 50 "Nope's" before I can write qualified or something similiar there

Originally Posted by noikeee

I imagine this would've been a frustrating season, coming so close to promotion after being stuck at that level for 4 seasons, but this slowing down of progress may actually be good in the long-term for your youths as they gain experience to attack the following tier - very good news on the junior coaching front too to go along with that. Surely next year you're looking into going up tho?

Yes and no. They do gain more experience and they have progressed rather well, but most of them are now at a stage, even though they still have at least 3 stars left to fulfil, where their progress is stunted due to a need to train full time. I can't provided that at the moment so it looks like this quality is going to be here for a while. And yeah, anything other than promotion this season will be classed as a disappointing season.

Finances gained close to 600k because of the leagues, though most of that will be gone by the end of the season. Lacheln/Altendorf has become the 3rd of 5 teams to come straight back down after winning the league. I'm gonna take this as a sign that the step up is brutal.

Opening day again put us in a tough away fixture, this time to recently relegated Lacheln/Altendorf. Our last game against them ended in a 4-1 win for them, so we were looking not to repeat that scoreline. The game was a relatively even affair, and it reflected in the final score with a 2-2 draw. Our next game was against newly promoted FC Contone, who we dispatched rather unconvincingly 2-1.

August 2017

August started with a bang. Two away trips handed us two 4 goal victories, the first a 5-1 thrashing of Baar in the league, with Thomas Nowakowski (YP4) scoring a hattrick, before heading to Maur in the cup and turning on the style in front of their fans, winning 4-0. We seemed to suffer from overconfidence in our next game against newly promoted side Appenzil, losing 2-1, before finishing the month in the cup with a 2-1 victory over FC Forward-Morges

September 2017

September put us up against Rüthi, a must win game for us seeing we were slipping away from top placed Schaan, currently 5 points ahead of us. Nowakowski again starred with 2 goals in the 3-0 win, before a trip to AC Malcantone ended in a 2-1 victory. Then it was time for another newly promoted side to give us headaches, with Aadorf running out 3-2 victors in a game we dominated. Unfortunately, they scored two early goals and we couldn't recover. The next two games were equally unconvincing, with us beating 6th tier side Puidoux-Chexbres 1-0 in the Swiss Cup 3rd round, before running out 3-1 victors over Bazenheld after conceding another early goal.

Schaan has picked up a very early 6 point lead over us after our disappointing start to the season. The two losses to newly promoted sides were real kick in the guts, but also showed us that we are still not completely above this level. Schaan unbeaten record is scary, as I didn't expect them to be doing this well. At the same time, Lachlen/Altendorf are doing much more poorly than I imagined.

In player news, Thomas Nowakowski (YP4) has shone so far this season with 10 goals in 11 games, including 8 in the league. Considering he scored 12 in 20 last season, this is a great achievement for him, and shows the progress he has made since his broken foot a few seasons back which kept him out for 4 months.

Also updated some of the stuff in the top posts, including the 100 appearances, which now show the seasons the players were with the club

Definitely too early to call it yet delta, Kreuzlingen were leading by 6 after 18 games last season and ended up 3rd. Schaan have still got to play us, and we haven't lost to them in competitive fixtures yet, with 4 wins and 2 draws.